State shooting range, shut down after lawsuit, could resume

Gunfire could resume at a controversial training center for state park police in Rensselaerville, although planners for the facility now will consider possible steps to lessen noise from the barrage. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) less

Gunfire could resume at a controversial training center for state park police in Rensselaerville, although planners for the facility now will consider possible steps to lessen noise from the barrage. (Skip ... more

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Gunfire could resume at a controversial training center for state park police in Rensselaerville, although planners for the facility now will consider possible steps to lessen noise from the barrage. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) less

Gunfire could resume at a controversial training center for state park police in Rensselaerville, although planners for the facility now will consider possible steps to lessen noise from the barrage. (Skip ... more

Photo: Skip Dickstein

State shooting range, shut down after lawsuit, could resume

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Rensselaerville

Gunfire could resume at a controversial training center for state park police, although planners for the facility now will consider possible steps to lessen noise from the barrage.

Officials at the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation this month released a potential roadmap for rebuilding and expansion of the training center known as Camp Cass, which was the subject of a 2017 lawsuit by neighbors upset over the repeated sound of sustained gunfire.

As a result of the lawsuit, the state agreed late that year to stop use of the outdoor range, where recruits would fire hundreds of rounds as part of their 27-week training. The 33-acre facility is bounded by County Road 358 and Cheese Hill Road.

Last month, parks officials released a report under state environmental law that indicated planners will consider moving the 10-lane, 100-yard range indoors, or reducing outside noise through the use earthen berms or other techniques.

Plans also call for renovating the camp's existing dormitory, building a second dormitory, and adding an "indoor active shooter training area" to the center. The center is the former Edward R. Cass Youth Rehabilitation Camp, which after closing in 2008 became a training center for park police.

The shooting range was added in the fall of 2017, sparking the neighbors' lawsuit under the state Environmental Quality Review Act.

Each recruit must fire at least 1,776 rounds as part of their training, and a training class can be between 25 and 45 people, so between 44,400 and 79,900 rounds could be fired at the range during the course of training.

"The neighbors are still opposed to the existing outdoor range," said Dana Salazar, an East Greenbush lawyer. "This new plan might even be worse because now the proposal is to make the center even bigger."

State officials, she added, should consider abandoning the current outdoor range entirely.

As part of the lawsuit, nearby residents cited what was described as barrages of gunfire, as well as concerns about potential lead and copper pollution in streams and ponds in the area. One neighbor who worked from home said he had to work in the basement to escape the noise.

Before opening the range, parks officials ruled the firing range would not create any undue noise or other environmental impact under state law, but that decision was withdrawn under an agreement to settle the lawsuit.

This week, parks officials ruled the project would have an environmental impact, which will require the filing of a full Environmental Impact Statement on how the firing range and other issues would be addressed.

The center has also been used for the training of staffers from the state Taxation and Finance Department, Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Emergency Management, state Attorney General's Office, state Health Department, Catskill Police Department, Columbia-Greene Community College, Albany County Sheriff's Department, and Rensselaerville Fire Department.

A public meeting on the issue will be held from noon to 2 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. March 27 at the camp, located at 16 Camp Cass Road.

A copy of the park's report can be found online at https://on.ny.gov/2TGZLyv